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Despite the flaming torches of the plebeian plotters which, in the Prologue, etched chiaroscuro omens within the Palladian porticos of Michael Yeargan’s imposing and impressive set, this was a rather slow-burn revival of Elijah Moshinsky’s 1991 production of Simon Boccanegra.

What a treat the London Music Conservatoires serve up for opera-goers each season. After the Royal Academy’s Bizet double-bill of Le docteur Miracle and La tragédie de Carmen, and in advance of the Royal College’s forthcoming pairing of Huw Watkins’ new opera, In the Locked Room, based on a short story by Thomas Hardy, and The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama have delivered a culinary coupling of Paul Hindemith’s The Long Christmas Dinner and Sir Lennox Berkeley’s The Dinner Engagement which the Conservatoire last presented for our delectation in November 2006.

Advertised in the program as the first opera written in the New World,
La Púrpura de la Rosa (PR) was premiered in 1701 in Lima
(Peru), but more than the historical feat, true or not, accounts for the
piece’s interest.

“German poet, dramatist and novelist. One of the most important literary and cultural figures of his age, he was recognized during his lifetime for his accomplishments of almost universal breadth. However, it is his literary works that have most consistently sustained his reputation, and that also serve to demonstrate most clearly his many-faceted relationship to music. . . .

Synopsis

Act I

A plain on the banks of the River Scheldt near Antwerp

King Henry of Germany has come to Antwerp to urge the people to join with
him in battle against invading Magyars, but he finds the Brabantians locked in
civil strife without a leader. Frederick of Telramund explains that on his
deathbed the Duke of Brabant had entrusted to his care his two children, Elsa
and Godfrey, on the understanding that he would marry Elsa and be guardian to
Godfrey. But Godfrey has disappeared, Elsa is suspected of doing away with him
and Telramund has married Ortrud, daughter of Radbold, King of the Frisians.

In her name and his own he claims the dukedom and accuses Elsa of fratricide
and of having a secret lover. The king agrees to judge the case and Elsa is
summoned. Her only answer to the accusations is to relate a dream in which a
hero appeared in answer to her need. To him she will entrust her cause. The
king decrees trial by combat, and the herald calls for a champion to appear.

A knight appears, in a boat drawn by a swan. He says he has been sent by God
to be Elsa's champion. She accepts him as champion and husband, agreeing to his
condition that she must never ask his name or lineage or where he came from.
Telramund is defeated in the duel, but the stranger knight spares his life and
is acclaimed by the populace.

Act II

The fortress of Antwerp

Telramund blames Ortrud for his downfall, as she had told him that she saw
Elsa drown her young brother, but she convinces him that he was defeated by
magic rather than divine intervention. She claims that the stranger's magic
would fail if he could be made to reveal his name - or even if the tip of a
finger were to be cut off.

As only Elsa can ask him to reveal his name, Ortrud plans to undermine her
confidence. Elsa appears on the balcony and Otrud, calling to her from the
darkness, succeeds in winning her pity, invoking the pagan gods in triumph as
Elsa prepares to let her in. Ortrud begs Elsa to intercede for Telramund and
suggests that as the stranger arrived by magic, so he may leave by magic, but
Elsa's faith is unshaken.

At dawn the herald proclaims the banishment of Telramund and announces that
the king has invested the crown of Brabant in Elsa's husband, who will lead the
Brabantians into battle. Four nobles mutter their resentment at this decision
and Telramund offers to lead them in rebellion.

As Elsa is about to enter the church for her wedding Ortrud claims that she
must yield pride of place to her, since her husband has been falsely accused
and is of noble birth, whereas no one knows anything about Elsa's husband.
Claiming that he would be revealed a fraud if he had to divulge the source of
his power, she challenges Elsa to ask the question. Telramund accuses the
strange knight of witchcraft and asks his name and lineage, but he is
answerable to Elsa alone. Telramund whispers to Elsa that if she were to let
him cut off the tip of the stranger's finger his secret would be known and he
would never leave her. She rejects the advice and goes into the church with her
husband, who orders Telramund and Ortrud to leave.

Act III

Scene 1. The bridal chamber

Following the good wishes of their attendants, Elsa and her husband are left
alone for the first time. Their delight in one another is soon undermined by
her regrets that she cannot call her husband by his name and her fears that he
may leave her. A hysterical vision of the swan returning to take him away leads
to the fatal question. Telramund bursts in with his followers and is killed by
Lohengrin, who tells the nobles to bring the body before the king. He calls
Elsa's ladies to dress her and tells her he will answer her question before the
king.

Scene 2. The banks of the Scheldt

The king thanks the people for their support in defending Germany against
the heathen. The body of Telramund is carried in, followed by Elsa and her
husband, who tells the king he will not be able to lead the people of Brabant
into battle. He is absolved from blame for Telramund's death.

Explaining that Elsa has been tricked into asking the forbidden question, he
answers it: he is one of the champions of the Holy Grail, who are sent out into
the world to defend the cause of right. But they must leave once their
identities are known. He is Lohengrin, son of Parsifal, who wears the crown of
the Grail. He prophesies that Germany will never be conquered by the eastern
hordes. The swan appears and Lohengrin bids farewell to Elsa, telling her that
if he had been able to stay, her bother Godfrey, who is not dead, would have
returned.

Ortrud exults at her success in driving Lohengrin away and that Godrey must
remain in the form of the swan as a result of her witchcraft. Lohengrin kneels
in prayer and when he takes the chain from the neck of the swan, it is
transformed into Godfrey. Elsa falls lifeless as Lohengrin leaves, his boat now
drawn by a white dove.